Multi-euro million allocation approved for larger parties

EUROPE’s bigger political parties will share roughly €6.5 million of EU funding for the rest of 2004 under an allocation approved by the European Parliament’s leadership yesterday (13 October).

European Voice

10/13/04, 5:00 PM CET

Updated 4/12/14, 10:39 AM CET

But only those European parties which fulfil certain criteria are eligible for the funds, the Parliament’s bureau decided.

The money, which is available immediately, will go to those parties that are either represented in at least a quarter of the member states (a minimum of seven) or have received at least 3% of the votes cast.

The new rules follow from the European Party Statute which came into effect in July at the first session of the new Parliament.

The aim of the statute is to make the funding of European political parties more open and transparent.

Of the total funding, 15% is split evenly between the five eligible political parties. The rest is allocated on the basis of the number of MEPs contained in each party.

The new rules were the subject of a case taken to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) by a group of MEPs from smaller political parties which do not qualify for the funds.

The Danish eurosceptic MEP Jens-Peter Bonde, joint leader of the 37-strong Independence and Democracy group in the Parliament said: “These new rules discriminate against smaller groupings such as ours which are not part of a European political party.”

The ECJ has yet to decide whether to hear the case after it was disputed by both the Parliament and Council of Ministers.